Is Afghanistan Mission Another Pointless War?

On the one hand, it was a heartfelt testimonial to soldiers killed in battle. But on the other, it was a reminder of the ultimate futility of that costly war. "The World War of 1914-18 was an appalling event in the history of humanity," the authoritative Encyclopaedia of Canada pronounced in 1937, on the eve of another great war. "Even those who had foreseen and prepared for it for many years had no idea how tremendous a cataclysm was to shake the world, what enormous armies would be engaged, what stupendous supplies of ammunition would be expended, how many millions of men would die." For Canada, the conflict of 1914-18 remains the deadliest in the country's history, far outstripping both the Korean War and World War II. Of the roughly 620,000Canadians who served in World War I, more than 66,000died. A further 173,000were injured. And yet, as most historians readily acknowledge, these deaths and injuries were for naught. World War II, the war against Hitler, was worth fighting. But World War I accomplished nothing. In the end, it created more problems for the Allied victors than it solved — a Bolshevik revolution in Russia and the rise of Nazism in devastated Germany. So, it is strange and somewhat ironic to find Prime Minister Stephen Harper using World War I as a model for Canada's involvement in the Afghan conflict. http://tinyurl.com/ydb8xf

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